How My Past As A Black Woman Informs Me As A Black Male Feminist

[ismnotwasm]

This is a very interesting POV, and I admire this man greatly for writing this

Originally published on Blackademic and cross-posted here with their permission.
Although I am not new to masculinity, I am new to being a black man.
I am new to the experience of male privilege and its consequence of authority, as well as the disprivilege of race that marks my black male body as innately suspect.
It is the delicate balance between power and criminal that has allowed me to see the machinations of misogyny in an entirely different light.
Whereas black cisgender men have generally approached feminist discourse through the academic texts and writings of black women, for me, it is my lived experience as a black female that has shaped the ways in which I embrace and practice black feminism.
Prior to physical transition, I wasn’t naïve to the ways in which certain forms of black masculinity contribute to the oppression of women.
I grew up in a family of single black women who loved – really loved – black men, even though it was their husbands, boyfriends, and sometimes brothers who were the perpetrators of emotional and physical abuse.
I watched my mother, my beautiful mother, struggle with the demons of mental illness and drug use.

http://everydayfeminism.com

[MadrasT]

1. I think the experiences of transgender folkss

are so enlightening and interesting to learn about, and I appreciate the author for sharing, and you for posting this here.

From time to time, I have fleetingly thought about what it would be like to present to the world as male and wondered how different it would be, and I love the first hand accounts of people who have had this experience.